MacFarlane introduced a prototype at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show, which was released in 2005 as a bundle called the Digital Music System. The company expanded upon the prototype and product design, adding mesh networking with AES encryption to allow the speakers to play music simultaneously in multiple rooms. Between 2011 and 2014, the company released numerous speakers and added more services. They worked with Bruce Mau Design to incorporate a rebrand of the company, which took effect in 2015. The company has partnered with other companies adding to their catalog of services, including iHeartRadio, Spotify, MOG, QQ Music, and Amazon Music.

They are also partnering with Amazon to enable Alexa to control Sonos speakers, intending to eventually work with every voice assistant on the market.[1] Google Assistant will also be supported by Sonos at some point in 2019.[2]

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Contents

History

Sonos was founded in 2002[3] by John MacFarlane, Craig Shelburne, Tom Cullen and Trung Mai, with MacFarlane wanting to create a wireless service.[4] In 2004, MacFarlane brought a prototype of the company's soon-to-be first product, the Digital Music System bundle of smart speakers, to CES and the remote at a Wall Street Journal press conference later that year.[5] The bundle won the "Best of Audio" award at the CES Innovations Design and Engineering awards in November[6] and was released in February 2005.[7] In March, the company introduced the ZP100 amplifier (later replaced by the ZP120 and rebranded as the CONNECT:AMP) as an add-on to the current Digital Music System bundle.[8] The bundle was also announced to be sold in the United Kingdom later in May.[9] This was joined shortly afterwards by the unamplified ZP80 (later replaced by the ZP90, rebranded as the CONNECT) with analog and digital input and output connections to link a user's Sonos system to their traditional amplifier. In 2009 the ZonePlayer S5 (later rebranded as the PLAY:5) an amplified smart speaker was released.

In February 2011, Sirius XM was added to Sonos' catalog of music services.[10] In July, the company announced the PLAY:3, a second, smaller, amplified speaker in its Play lineup of smart speakers[11] and added Spotify to its catalog.[12]MOG was also added to the catalog of services, with a free 14-day trial, in May.[13]

In March 2014, the company announced a refresh of its universal Controller app for its system.[24] In January 2015, Sonos was rebranded by Bruce Mau Design,[25] with a new visual identity and improved logotype that was created over the span of four years, from 2011 to 2014.[26] Sonos also announced the limited edition Blue Note PLAY:1 in February, a collaboration with Blue Note Records,[27] which went on sale in March.[28] A new ("2nd gen") PLAY:5 speaker was announced in September. In October, Amazon Music support was officially added following 3 years of Cloud Player support[29] and pre-orders for the PLAY:5 began the same month.[30] In November, a tuning feature called Trueplay was released in a software update.[31] Trueplay tunes the output of Sonos smart speaker units to the acoustics of the room they are in. The initial tuning process requires the use of a suitable Apple smartphone or tablet.

Apple Music became available for streaming in February 2016[32] and Sonos also released a study entitled Music Makes it Home Study.[33] In March, CEO John MacFarlane announced the company's shift to streaming music services and voice control instead of local playback and laid off some employees.[34] In July, the company opened its first Sonos Store in SoHo.[35] In September, the company announced that its products would become available at the Apple Store.[36]

In January 2017, McFarlane announced via the company's blog that he would be stepping down from his role as CEO, and that he would be succeeded in this position by former COO Patrick Spence.[37]

In December 2017, IKEA and Sonos announced a collaboration to build Sonos' technology into furniture sold by IKEA.[38] The first products resulting from the collaboration will launch in 2019.[39]

Products

The company currently offers eight powered speakers: four smart speakers (ONE,[40]PLAY:1,[41]PLAY:3 and PLAY:5[40]), two soundbars (PLAYBAR[40] and BEAM), a television sound system (PLAYBASE),[41] and a subwoofer (SUB)[40]. It also offers the CONNECT:AMP to drive unpowered speaker pairs and the CONNECT to link a Sonos system to conventional audio equipment such as amplifiers and CD players. A key feature of whole house systems starting in 2017 was the adoption of Amazon's Alexa as a third-party voice controller.[42] An updated version of the Sonos Amp was unveiled in August 2018, with a planned limited release in December.[43]

Multiple Sonos devices in a single household are connected to each other wirelessly or through a wired ethernet network or a mixture of the two.[44] The Sonos system creates a proprietary AES-encrypted peer-to-peermesh network,[45] known as SonosNet. This allows for each unit to play any chosen input and if desired share it as synchronized audio with one or more other chosen zones. A single ZonePlayer or ZoneBridge must be wired to a network for access to LAN and Internet audio sources when using this feature,[44] or when creating a 3.1/5.1 surround setup.[46][47] SonosNet 2.0 integrates MIMO on 802.11n hardware, providing a more robust connection. Sonos does not implement wake-on-wireless technology, instead requiring that every Sonos player or bridge constantly maintains a wireless connection, even when in standby mode or connected by cable. The mesh network maintains signal in digital form throughout transfers, only converting to analog at the speaker endpoint, which was a distinguishing feature versus, for instance, Bose and Squeezebox as of 2009.[45] Sonos devices do not have power buttons, and the company claims that each speaker consumes 4-8W in idle/standby.[48]

Sonos previously offered 2 dedicated handheld controllers. Sales of the more recent CR200 controller were discontinued in 2012.[49]. Existing CR200 controllers continue to operate, however there are reports of touchscreen failures which cannot be repaired.[50]. The previous CR100 ceased being supported in April 2018.[51]

The first official Sonos Store was opened in New York City on July 12, 2016.[55] A store opened on Seven Dials in London, in November 2017.[56] A store opened in Berlin, Germany in April 2018.[57]

Offices

There are currently 12 offices operated by Sonos independently.[58] These are located in Australia, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Santa Barbara CA (US), Seattle WA (US), Sweden, and the United Kingdom.[citation needed] An engineering office was present in Boston as of 2017.[42]